Musicians of all kinds can be impressive but it’s clear I’m a sucker for the Saxophone. In
the 1970s and 80s I worked with a long list of marvelous musicians in pop, Americana,
R&B, AC (adult contemporary), jazz, classical and more. And I collected vinyl records and
CDs for years. But like music lovers of all genres, I had my real favorites and surprisingly
(to me) I had a respectable jazz collection of a couple of hundred titles. The appreciation
for jazz began with a visit to a record store in Chicago’s Old Town and the random
purchase of a used vinyl gem: Jazz Workshop Revisited, a live album by saxophonist Julian
“Cannonball” Adderley on the Riverside label. Some weeks or months later there was the
purchase of the new John Coltrane album, A Love Supreme. Music is at once both personal
and social, and finding common ground as listeners or as performer and audience, plays
on our emotional component. Moving to the coast I’ve made any number of new friends.
And one of them is a particularly impressive musician.
On first glance, Harrison Goldberg appears to be like so many of us. On the Mendocino
Coast we are all influenced by the environment, and I’m not just talking weather here.
There’s an effort to enjoy the coastal life: work, creativity, romance, intellect, and so on. In
short, living. That being said, on closer inspection and getting to know Harrison, you can
see that he savors life here and incorporates the influences into his creative gifts. Most
obvious are his musical gifts. He’s a multi-instrumentalist, Harrison Goldberg: Inspired By
Music, Baseball, Art, And Life On The Coast but the heart of his music is about the sax. He
doesn’t just perform. He writes, he records, he pushes himself to continue the creative
journey.
There he was, on stage, during a recent performance at Point Arena’s intimate pub 215
Main. As he started playing “Take Five” I wondered at first just why he’d elect to perform
one of the most recognized songs on the planet. As he played, the familiarity was there,
yet to his credit he made it sound fresh, and not clichéd.
Harrison Goldberg was much like other impressive players I’ve known and heard. But it
was, after all, a trio. Seeing him on stage, there appears to be a distinction between the
extrovert composer- musician as a performer, and his slightly more understated role as
emcee. Between songs he tends to defer intros and outros to those performing with him,
making certain they each receive sufficient attention, before introducing himself with a bit
less volume. Harrison has the chops, yet he doesn’t work at making himself the single
center of attention. For example, Goldberg placed a noted emphasis on the vocals and
piano work of Rob Ellis, and bassist Joel Kruzic. And deservedly so. The result is that you
listen to the whole, ultimately forming your own opinion as to which part of the
performance, which one of the three musicians spoke most directly to you. This approach
(at least as viewed through my observations at a recent show) make the performance far
more enjoyable.
A surprising side of Harrison’s creative output is his painting, which includes a gallery
opening at Red Shoes Gallery, 1040 North Dutton Avenue, Santa Rosa this month. His use
of color, texture, and inspiration are compelling and worth seeing in person. Samples of
his art are on his website(www.HarrisonGoldbergArts.com). Opening receptions on Friday
and Saturday June 24 and 25. The paintings will be on display through mid-July.
Recently Goldberg has been developing a project he’s titled “Imagine If Jazz Were Like
Baseball”, and before you jump to any conclusions, this isn’t a casual (or trivial) take on
jazz and jazz musicians. And the work is certainly not meant to be a transposition of, for
example, earlier cleverness like the 1910 baseball poem by Franklin Pierce Adams, “Tinker
to Evers to Chance”. Rather this is Goldberg flexing his creative muscle and offering a
thoughtful, enjoyable, and highly listenable experience as he talks through his imagined
game, supported with an appropriately-flavored jazz rhythm section.
Like professional athletes across multiple sports, jazz musicians have long had nicknames.
Digging deep we might find that one or two were perhaps a little less than organic
(created by a musician as a self indulgent sobriquet). But the vast majority were gifts from
other players or fans or family members. Louis Armstrong, for example, was reportedly
called Satchelmouth early on, some say due to his large mouth. Apparently even
Satchelmouth needed a nickname, hence the abbreviated Satchmo. In addition to
Armstrong, Goldberg brings numerous familiar nicknames to the project. Names like “Bird”
(Charlie Parker), “Trane” ( John Coltrane), “Cannonball” (Julian Adderley), “Count” (William
James Basie), “Duke” (Edward Kennedy Ellington), and so on. Although you need the soft
musical backdrop to fully appreciate the effort, here’s a brief passage from “Imagine If Jazz
Were Like Baseball”:
“It’s bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Three to two count on the
batter and the game is all tied up. Then back up to the plate he steps, Cannonball
Adderley, his fearsome alto Brushing a wide chest. The crowd yells Mercy, Mercy!’ And you
can hear that horn man blowing loud and steady, Swinging mightily with his sax.”
Goldberg’s imagery is playful, thoughtful, evocative. In this brief excerpt from his
creation we can easily see Adderley standing in the batter’s box with his saxophone, not a
bat. And the baseball-loving crowd knew immediately that “Mercy, Mercy!” was the perfect
cheer. With luck this new creative work will find its way to a recording in the near future
so that we can all savor it at home, without requiring a drive to the ballpark. After all,
music and the images it conjures up are to be enjoyed wherever we are most comfortable.
But Harrison knew that from the first moment he started creating “Imagine If Jazz Were
Like Baseball”. Catch Harrison Goldberg at one of his regular performances on or near the
Mendocino coast. You won’t be disappointed. In fact, it might be the cure for what ails you.
- by David Steffen in The Lighthouse Peddler, June 2016
You can view the original article here:
http://www.HarrisonGoldbergArts.com/files/20/9/Harrison-David-Steffen-2016.pdf
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Harrison Goldberg 
